Manchester City has won a major battle against the Premier League as a result of new regulations regarding sponsorship agreements being declared “unlawful.”
In a significant, landmark verdict that will send shockwaves through the top flight, a heavyweight panel of retired judges has ruled that regulations aimed at preventing clubs from inflating deals with companies linked to their owners breach the Competition Act – and that the top flight was wrong to stop two recent City deals.
The Abu Dhabi-owned four-in-a-row champions, currently facing 115 charges of breaking Premier League financial rules in a separate case, took the league to court earlier this year. They claimed the rules, brought in after the Saudi-led takeover of Newcastle United and amended in February, were unfair.
And in a ruling that could spell trouble for others – not least rivals Arsenal – the system on Associated Party Transactions (APTs) was deemed unlawful. The panel gave a number of reasons, including the fact that the rules do not extend to loans from owners and shareholders.
Of £4billion borrowed across the league £1.5bn comes from shareholder loans – including all of the Gunners estimated £250m borrowings and almost all of Brighton’s.
Source: Daily Mail UK
